Miami, Bicenntial Park 2009
I have to admit, I am not a huge festival lover. Sure experiencing Glastonbury, Bestival, V, Sunrise, Big Chill, Raindance, Global Gathering, Secret Garden Party, Reading and the like have all been fun, but I want a comfy bed at the end of a night, not some cold tent which takes a year to find after a night on the riddle and waking and discovering all my clothes, money and car keys have been nicked. So when I saw that Ultra at WMC in Miami is keeping with the tradition of keeping it an all day event – I was there with bells on. I suppose sitting on a hill at Glastonbury surveying the craziness is perhaps the best festival view yo can have. Ultra comes a close second. After moving from the beach and the marquees and open air stages, the event now takes place Downtown Miami in a fabulous park that is surrounded by 50 storey apartments on one side and the lovely estuary on the other. City centre clubbing on a grand, grand scale. And you thought Global Gathering had the best line up at their annual affair, think again dude. Stars such as Tiesto, The Black Eyed Peas, Paul Van Dyk, Bloc Party, Armin Van Buuren, David Guetta, Pendulum, Deadmau5, The Ting Tings, Goldie, Tiefschwarz, Pete Tong, Fedde Le Grand and Cut Copy all amongst hundreds of amazing acts. Ultra is a two day party, 25,000 people a day, loads of different arenas catering for a crowd who really know their different choice of music. The first thing I noticed this year is how British the feel is. The Americans have really embraced the UK Festival culture. You have your house heads, hard house heads, deep house heads, tech house heads, drum n’ bass heads, hip hop heads – they all know their stuff. But it’s not just the music, there’s the fancy dress madness – red indians, cowboys, girls in fluro and fluffy boots, a Cinderella in a shocking white dress sauntering about, robots, stilt walkers covered head to toe in silver paint – and the vibe? Friendliest event I have ever been to. No security to be seen, thousands of little private parties going on with friends in huddles just getting on with it. Walking in to the event the roads are littered with dozens of empty police cars with their roof lights flashing – welcome to Miami, behave yourself and we’ll look after you. Seeing a copper outside sharing a spliff with some young beauty was hilarious. So my highlights? The House Arena. Erick Morillo was just splendid. He had 8000 people in the palm of his hand from track one. A proper DJ showman. Dancing behind the decks, sweating his rocks off, singing to the crowd and playing, well the best music of WMC of the week. Dozens of people in the crowd waving flags from their home country, I saw Cuba, Holland, Spain, Jamaica, UK, Australian, Canadian, Italian and French flags above the heads of people going ballistic – that’s how cosmopolitan the event is. Footballs bounced around via people punching them around the arena, the best looking dancers I HAVE EVER seen up on stage and Carl Cox running into the DJ booth to embrace Morillo which sent the crowd into heaven. The best two tunes of his set in my opinion, Mike Dunn SD Express ‘What is House’ and Felix Bauemgarter ‘Now You’re Gone’. Took the roof off. The Prodigy and Boys Noize were amazing too – what a live band, the queue for people waiting to get Moby’s autograph just off the hook. The DJ Scratch Academy was brilliant, the couple walking around with matching t-shirts (I Love Rave Girl & I Love Rave Boy) and then there was the silliness…my mate selling our guest list wrist bands outside on the way out for $400 Bucks, a certain record company executive admitting to me that he has buried tins of his sperm in his garden in case he gets a terminal illness and his girlfriend wants a baby when he’s gone (this is Miami remember and drugs take their toll on people’s mind’s after a few days). Ultra, what a perfect name…
Dan Prince
